On Edge

Strike realities, rather than threats, had two communities on edge.

IN HAWAII, Governor Ingram Stainback set out to do what Harry Truman said he could not do for him: settle an ugly eleven-week-old strike of Harry Bridges' Communist-line longshoremen.* The governor said he would ask the territorial legislature for permission to take over the docks permanently. "Some people may consider this union-busting," said Stainback, "others may consider it free-enterprise-busting, but it certainly would be citizen-saving."

IN MANHATTAN, on the grounds that four garage mechanics had been fired, the Transport Workers' hardheaded Mike Quill cut off transportation for 1,250,000 New York bus riders. Ignoring a no-strike pledge he made only two weeks ago, and blandly passing over the original excuse for the strike, Quill threatened to keep the boys out until he got them an extra 21-c- an hour, a 40-hour week and a whole string of pension and welfare concessions.

Tired Mayor William O'Dwyer, who had just said that he would seek reelection, flew back from a Mexican holiday to see what it would take to quiet Mike Quill.

*Bridges' union provided further proof of its party-lining last week in a new publication, Report from Europe, based on a rosy "rank & file" journey behind the Iron Curtain.

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